Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
Religious Music & Entertainment
Common Grace, 3.57

Common Grace, 3.57

Last updated on: August 29, 2023 at 8:00 am by Coyle Neal

0 Comments

Common Grace, 3.57 2023-08-28T13:36:15-06:00 Coyle Neal

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

This post is part of a series walking through the third volume of Abraham Kuyper’s Common Grace

Kuyper opens his first chapter on “Society” with a recap of the relationship between the church and particular grace and the state and common grace, as well as the family and its place in raising kids within society.

But what is “society”? There is no institution that is ” society”, though we often identify it with whatever the biggest/most important structure around is (the state, the church, etc). Trying to organize society leads us to the state, which is not “society.” In fact, the two compete with each other. The state uses law and force, while society uses custom and opinion and praise and blame. Which is not to say the two aren’t related, for example:

“The social life of a people requires there to be roads that bring the various cities and villages in contact with one another, and the state takes upon itself the maintenance of the main arteries among these connecting roads; it raises funds for their construction through taxation and decrees what rules will apply on these state highways. By contrast, society decides through custom whether we travel along these state roads in a [Norwegian style vehicle; English style vehicle; or Dutch style vehicle.]” (475)

So state and government are not the same, though they are tied together. The Government is God’s divine servant, and apart of the state. (And Kuyper is using some broad terms here, so I should note that by “state” at this point he seems to mean “nation,” with “government” meaning the much more specific term for the institutions that politically run the state.) The government must be the final authority in the state, if only for the purposes of foreign relations and practical reality.

We must avoid the “administrative state”, which would take functions that rightly belong to society. This is what the “social democrats” work for, and would wrongly place economics front and center. We must resist this tendency as well.

We see the state/government distinction further worked out in the difference between criminal law and civil law. [The former involves punishment for our actions, the latter governs interactions between citizens that don’t involve crimes.] The administrative state would collapse this distinction as well, making every breach of contract a crime (or even poorly written contracts in the first place).

By contrast,

We are all subject to God’s sovereignty first;
This protects society’s sphere, as does the doctrine of sphere sovereignty in general;
Localism and community freedom must stand;

So what is “society” We must not confuse the two meanings of the Dutch word. One means something like “company”, the other “society.” “Company” implies structure, which society does not have. No formal membership, no meetings, no headship. This is the same distinction we have talked about earlier between the institution and the organism in the church, where the organism has no real structure.

“…in social life there is the institutional aspect, on the one hand, which shows up in city councils and so on, and beyond this we observe the organic life of a nation that manifests itself in all kinds of ways that we describe as ‘society.’ Social life in this sense, therefore, is always a vague, floating, and ephemeral concept, if you will, because it is the very life of a nation itself to the extent that it is not restricted institutionally.” (479)

So social life is an intermediate sphere between the family and the institutional state. It is fluid–more so in the modern world with the speed of communication. Social life is increasingly a world-wide organism, though local characteristics remain. This means society is an intermediary between humanity and the family.

Society is everything outside the spheres of family, church, and state, and is the realm of common grace. It is waiting for us to influence it, but more on that in the next post.

Dr. Coyle Neal is co-host of the City of Man Podcast an Amazon Associate (which is linked in this blog), and an Associate Professor of Political Science at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, MO

Evangelical

General Christian

Previous Post

August 25, 2023

Chrysostom on a bunch of stuff

Next Post

September 1, 2023 Being better

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"No disagreement with any of that--though I've not heard "Moments" and will have to look ..."

cneal

Top of the Country: Amen

"The song is quite bouncy, even upbeat, considering the subject matter. (His "pills" ran out ..."

TheOldMaid

Top of the Country: Amen

"One noteworthy series in this area is valuable lessons in law. This series helps young ..."

Thomas White

The Law

"The longevity of Parker's lectures and teachings after his death is no more surprising than ..."

reggiebannister

Proclaiming Christ Still

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Action AFI Top 100 Animation Best Picture Winner BFI Top 250 Biography Biopic Books Childrens Christian Classics Classics Comedy Crime Documentary Drama Editor's Choice Family Fantasy Fantasy Films Foreign Historical Historical Fiction History Horror Horror IMDB Top 250 Indie Memoir Modern Novel Musical Mystery Non-Fiction Oscars Philosophy Poetry Popular Literature Reading and Writing Reality Romance Science Fiction Science Fiction Silent Sports Thriller TV Show Uncategorized Western Westerns Young Adult

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 June 2017 January 2017 December 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

In 2 Timothy, what did Paul leave with Carpus at Troas?

Select your answer to see how you score.

His cloak and scrolls His tent-making tools His letters His money